MANCHESTER - New Hampshire Attorney General Joseph A. Foster has found that Manchester police officers were justified in opening fire on a Jeep in an attempt to stop the driver from continuing a car chase through downtown on June 3.

Foster said Wednesday that the officers involved in the shooting had reason to fear for the public safety as well as their own after the driver rammed a police SUV and accelerated toward officers who were on foot.

The first shots took out a tire in the Jeep, but the driver continued with the chase and more shots were fired into the vehicle. Christopher Varagianis was hit twice in the leg and was eventually taken into custody after the Jeep was boxed in by police vehicles on Merrimack Street.

Varagianis faces felony charges of attempted first-degree assault and two counts of reckless conduct. He also faces misdemeanors of disobeying a police officer and resisting arrest.

Deputy Gross mysteriously disappeared when he went to Barre to collect $250 from a man found liable in a civil matter. The next day the deputies car was found in a wooded area east of Barre. The man...